As you know we’re a month into our 4th Annual Figment Album Cover Design Contest, and since we’re at the half way point we though it was a good time to remind you about just one of the great prizes you’ll take home if Chris Mars picks your design! Our good friends at Adobe are going to outfit this year’s winner with a copy of the newly released Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 6!

Adobe Photoshop CS6 software delivers lightning-fast creativity and a sprinkle of magic, enabling designers to create breathtaking images, video, and 3D artwork that will set their work apart in print, on the web, and on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. Retouch images with astonishing ease and fine control now that the magic of Content-Aware technology powers two completely new additions to the Content-Aware technology family—the Content-Aware Patch tool and Content-Aware Move. Easily create new lens blurs and tilt-shift photography effects. Maximize your hardware investment and save significant time in your workflows thanks to the new Monaco Graphics Engine, which delivers blazing-fast interactions in key editing tools including Liquify, Puppet Warp, and the new Lighting Effects Gallery; new preset migration and sharing, which let you experience Photoshop in the same way across all your computers and bring your customizations from past versions of Photoshop into Photoshop CS6; and new Background Save and Auto-recovery options that boost productivity and image security. Enjoy a much easier way to create 3D artwork with a vastly simplified User Interface, and enhance your 3D creations with shadows lighting, animation, and new sketch and cartoon looks. Use new and enhanced design capabilities—including type styles, layer search, and dashed line creation—to create superior work in fewer steps. Crop faster and with greater precision with the all-new Crop tool. And much more.

Needless to say this is a prize that will help you take your album cover designs to the next level!  So get working on a design now and submit it before the June 1, 2012 deadline to have a chance at winning the image-editing software used by professional photographers and designers all over the world.

This is a new feature here on Figment News where I’ll highlight a real band that I wish I’d made up.  You know, as a fake band.  Make sense?  No?  That’s half the point.  Stop thinking and start rockin’!

Okay, so Bernard Purdie is not a band per se, but he’s one hell of a musician, and when you hear him play it certainly sounds like there is more than one person playing – that’s how good he is.  Here’s “the most recorded drummer in the world” playing the 16th Note Shuffle. Take it away Bernard!

And as an added bonus here’s Bernard talking about his long career in the music business.

Cover-sation is a new feature here on Figment News where we’ll post an album cover from Figment and ask you what you think of it.  Good, bad, indifferent?  What do you like about the cover’s design?  What don’t you like?  How might you have approached the same cover?  In short, we’ll have a conversation about an album cover design…a Cover-sation if you will…

As some of you may know Riki Milligan, Eccentric Arcade’s lead singer, lost his father this week.  All of us at Figment would like to extend our condolences to Riki and his family for their loss.  In Riki’s father’s honor, we thought it only fitting to have a Cover-sation about Eccentric Arcade’s “Machines Again” album cover.  So let us know what you think.

Well, you can’t have Victor Rossi & His Big Fat Posse without…well, His Big Fat Posse.  So as part of our Let’s Build A Band project we assigned Tyman the enviable task of creating “The Posse”, what instruments they play, and even what equipment they use, and create he did…in record time we might add!  Take it away Tyman!

Members:

Victor Rossi (singer/rhythm guitar)

Dmitri Carlton (lead guitar/backup vocalist)

Ryan Drako (bassist)

Tina Neilson (drummer)

Equipment:

Victor Rossi – Shure Microphones, Dean 7 String Guitars, Randall Guitar Amps.

Dmitri Carlton – BC Rich 7 String Guitars, Engl Guitar Amps, Shure Microphones.

Ryan Drako – Schecter 6 String Basses, Behringer Bass Amps.

Tina Neilson – Yamaha 7 Piece Double Bass Drumsets, Pro-Mark Japanese White Oak Drumsticks, Paiste Cymbals (some cymbals are shaped like saw blades).

What do you think of the band?  I know I dig any band with a female drummer.

We launched Figment back in 2008 on the premise that anyone who loves music is looking for a creative ways to express that love whether they can play an instrument or not.  In the four years since we launched, you our players, have proven that premise to be true, and Figment is now a place where you can express that love through original art/design, writing, and even marketing.So as we launch our fourth annual  Figment Album Cover Design Contest, we do so with a lot of pride!

For those of you who are visiting Figment for the first time or just recently became a player, our Album Cover Design Contest is arguably the biggest contest we hold all year here on Figment.  It’s a competition to see who can design the best album cover for their fake band.  Whether you have mad design chops or just a great imagination and a clear concept, you’ve got a chance to win, and winning has it’s perks.  We’d love to have as many participants as possible this year, because we believe all of our players have a creative voice that should be heard, and we hope you’ll take this opportunity to have your voice heard.

So who will be listening?  Well, we’re thrilled to announce that this year’s judge will be none other than Chris Mars, the former drummer for Minneapolis alternative rock/punk band The Replacements.  Beyond being a part of one of rock n’ roll’s most legendary bands, Chris also helped design some of The Replacements album covers including “Pleased To Meet Me” as well as all of the covers for all of his solo albums.   His love of painting led him to largely abandon music in 2006 to concentrate on his visual art.  His artwork has since been featured in exhibitions around North America and Europe.  It was Chris’ gradual evolution from fan to musician to visual artist that we found fascinating and ultimately what makes him the perfect judge for this year’s Figment Album Cover Design Contest.

We’re also proud to have Adobe, the leader in digital media creation and editing products, on-board for the 4th straight year to supply our winner with Adobe Photoshop.  Adobe supports and enables creativity at the highest levels.

So how does the contest work?  Quite simply, we’re looking for the best original album cover design.  Sure, technical design skill is a plus, but we’re ultimately looking for an album cover that grabs our attention.  Last year the winner was theHoseman, whose design for Van Q’s “Shattered Circuits” album caught the eye of last year’s judge  Tad Kubler, despite the fact that theHoseman didn’t even own a copy of Photoshop.  Tad had this to say about theHoseman’s design:

I like the look of this album – color palette and it’s not overly designed. It reminds me a lot of Hazelmeyer’s designs from the AmRep records of the 90′s. I also like that the type on this is slightly discernible. It’s subtle and makes me want to find out more about the band. And I mean by listening to it. Not by checking out their facebook page.

So how will the judging work?  Well, we’re going to add a new wrinkle to this year’s judging by including a fellow Figment player to our initial round of judging.  Last year’s winner, theHoseman, will serve as a member of the initial panel along with members of our editorial staff.  This panel will select the Top 10 finalists from all of the entries.  Since he’ll be part of our finalist judging panel, theHoseman will not be allowed to enter the contest.   Once the Top 10 covers have been decided on they’ll be submitted to Chris Mars for consideration.  Chris, as the ultimate judge, will then pick a winner and 2 runners up from that Top 10.

As we mentioned above, the winner will receive a copy of the premier 3D graphic design software on the market, Adobe Photoshop, a prize worth over $1,000 alone!  But it doesn’t end there, because we’ll match it with an autographed copy of Chris Mars’ book “Tolerance”, 10,000 pieces of Lucre, and a brand spanking new Figment t-shirt.

The runners up will each receive 7,500 and 5,000 pieces of lucre respectively, and we may have a few other prizes to throw into the mix soon enough, so we’ll keep you posted!

So now that you know what’s at stake, what do you need to do to enter?  Here are the basic rules of the contest:

1. You must be a registered Figment user to participate.  If you don’t currently have a Figment account please click here to create one.  This contest is open to Figment users worldwide.

2.  Create a fake band on Figment and release an album (EP or singles are also eligible) with cover art.  The band and album must be fake, and not artwork for a real band. You may also release an album by an existing fake band that you created on Figment.  To be considered, any album entry must contain song titles. Even though they won’t be the focus of our judging, any album that is released without any song titles will be disqualified. Once you have released an album you want to submit as an entry please post the band, album name, and the URL to the album as a comment to this post, so that we and other users can check it out.  If you don’t post that information as a comment to this post your entry will not be considered eligible.

3.  Any artwork used in the creation of your album cover should either be original or at least one you have the permission of the copyright owner to use. If you do use someone else’s work you need to make it your own by adding text, altering it through manipulation or doing something else that makes it your own.  Any album designs that are judged as being a copy of an existing work will be disqualified.  We will also disqualify any album cover that is offensive in nature – sexist, racist or hate-based.

4.  You may enter as many album covers as you like.  If you would like to enter an album cover you have already released on Figment, please note that you may only enter album covers created since January 1, 2012. Any album covers entered that were released before Jan. 1, 2012 will not eligible.

5.  The contest will run from Wednesday, April 4, 2012 until Friday, June 1, 2012.  All submissions must be posted by no later than 11:59 pm ET on Friday, June 1, 2012 to qualify.

6.  By no later than, Friday, June 8, 2012 the Top 10 finalists will be announced, and sent to Chris Mars for his review.  Chris will judge the Top 10 finalists and select a winner and two runners up.  The winner and runners up will be announced on Friday, June 15, 2012.

As we stated earlier, this is one of the biggest contests we run on Figment and we’re thrilled to have Chris Mars on-board as our judge.  So really try to pull out all the stops and create an album cover design that you think captures your creativity and love of music.  We look forward to your submissions.

If you’d like to read the full contest rules you can access them at:

http://figment.cc/content/pdf/2012_Album_Cover_Design_Contest_Rules.pdf

Welcome to “Cover Stories”, where we allow a Figment player to describe an album cover he/she designed in their own words.  From the original idea to the finished product, we’ll hear the story behind the cover.

For this installment of Cover Stories, we sought out Figment player formerwageslave, whose cover designs not only netted him the 2011 “Album Cover of the Year” Figgie, but also the #1 selling album on Figment in 2011.  We allowed him to pick a cover of his choice, and he decided to give us an inside look at his design process for the Lucifer and the Long Pigs album “Occult Outlaws.” Take it away formerwageslave!

The cover art for Lucifer and the Long Pigs’ “Occult Outlaws” is one of my favorite designs I’ve done for Figment so far. The artwork was complete long before I had a name for the album, and even before LLP released their double-album “Screwtape” collaboration with Squidbitchez. I had already used old parchment and worn leather textures for previous LLP albums, and in continuing that Wild West theme I knew that using an image of distressed, weathered wood was inevitable. I sorted through a lot of wood stock art before I found one that clicked– it had to look really old and dry, but it had to still be light enough that text, etc. wouldn’t get lost in it.

We’re very excited to announce that the band we tasked you with building in our Let’s Build A Band feature has taken one more step towards completion!  Victor Rossi & His Big Fat Posse now have a logo!  frizbee, with encouragement from formerwageslave, designed the logo and we’ll leave it to him to describe his design process:

I tried approaching the logo from a few different angles. formerwageslave and I both agreed that a name like Victor Rossi & His Big Fat Posse sounded like the kind of band you’d see playing along side bands like Reverend Horton Heat or The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, but then ChildofAlma’s Shock-and-Awe Sensory Assault Blackened Deathgrind genre really threw us for a loop. It was a tricky combination to design for. I wanted something that felt sleek, something fitting of a name like Victor Rossi & His Big Fat Posse, but something that also let you know that the band was metal. I didn’t want the logo to be too metal, mainly because I felt that it wouldn’t fit the name of the band if the logo looked like your stereotypical metal band logo. I went in a few different directions, from a more classy, almost Steampunk look, to a more old-school, distressed Rockabilly flyer look. The logo I finally decided upon is entirely made from scratch. I decided that I needed to create my own text for the logo, rather than relying on the various fonts in my arsenal. I didn’t have anything that fit the vibe I was aiming for: sleek, but menacing. I created the sharp pointed text in Adobe Illustrator, and I initially intended to include the full band name, but I thought it felt cluttered and wound up going with the more simplistic VR logo. Once I had the text created, I imported it into Photoshop to complete the look of the logo. I added a nice grungy texture background, as well as a scratched metal texture to the logo itself in order to add to the overall impression I was trying to make. I added a few layer styles, such as a drop shadow, bevel and emboss, and a gradient, which helped make the logo stand out against the background and appear more realistic. I also added a small light flare to add to the sleekness of the logo. The blood spatter is actually a nod to my first design, which played very heavily with the blood spatter. In fact, the entire second half of the band name was written in blood in my first design. I decided that it was a bit too much, but I liked the idea of incorporating the blood spatter into this particular logo to help add to the “metal” feel of the band. I’m very happy with the way the logo turned out, and it puts out exactly the vibe that I wanted. The gleaming metallic VR doesn’t necessarily scream “metal” at first glance-it almost reminds you of a hood ornament on some classic car, but then you take in the dark, grungy background and the mysterious spots of blood and you realize that there’s more to this band than meets the eye.

We think it’s a great logo and we hope you do too!  Let frizbee know what you think of his design by leaving a comment below.

Tyman is next on the clock with an assignment to create the band members (needless to say he doesn’t have to create Victor) and an idea of the musical equipment they play.  We expect some interesting choices given the band’s name, tagline, and genre!  Tyman you have until April 13th to send us your assignment, so get to work!

We know you’ve all been waiting patiently to find out who will take home a 2012 Figgie Award, and we’re happy to say the wait is over!  It was a close competition in almost all of the categories, so congrats to every band that was nominated!  Now here are the winners!

Click on each of the award icons to see who won!

Best Developed Band 2012

Best Tagline 2012

Best Band Name 2012

Best Single 2012

Best Tour/Festival 2012

Best New Artist 2012

Album Cover of the Year 2012

Album of the Year 2012

Congratulations to all of the Figgie winners and nominees.  The winners will receive 1,000 pieces of Lucre for each Figgie Award they received.

We just wanted to let you know that we’ve made a change to the Figment G-Base.com Gear Store.  Now you can not only buy the best music gear for your band, but you can sell it too!  That’s right, now you can sell your band’s gear back to the Gear Store.  Why?  The full reason will be revealed over time, but for now suffice to say that it will help you in those cases where you may need the lucre to buy equipment for another one of your bands.

To sell your gear, go to the Figment G-Base.com Gear Store by clicking on the link under the equipment you own on your band page or using the link under your band’s name on the dashboard page.  Once you’re in the Gear Store simply go to the bottom of the page, under the gear for sale, and you’ll see a section of the store where it lists the equipment your band owns.  To the left of each piece of equipment will be a button that says “Sell…” and lists the amount of lucre you’ll receive for selling it back to the store.  Click the button and your account will be credited for the lucre you earned from the sale and a message will appear at the top of the page confirming that you sold that piece of equipment back to the store.

That’s all there is to it, so go ahead, buy and sell to your heart’s content!

My bookmark list has been bulging at the seams for some time now, so it’s time for an expanded edition of Cleaning Out The Bookmarks. So sit back, click and enjoy some great internet ephemera!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have no time for Bon Iver, nor do I care for Bon Jovi, but Bon Joviver I can get behind.

frizbee always sends me great stuff, and this link to a Cracked.com & VirusComix.com Rock Timeline is no exception.

In November of 1979, Pink Floyd released “The Wall”.  The 30 shows they played on “The Wall” tour in LA, NY, Dortmund and London are legendary for the sheer scope of the production.  “Pink Floyd:  The Lost Documentary” is a rare look behind the scenes of the shows the band did at Earls Court in London, and really shows how much work goes into putting on a rock opus of this kind.  Make sure you watch Parts 2 & 3 as well.

Turns out the old rock n’ roll maxim “Sex, Drugs and Rock N’ Roll” may only apply to men…well at least the first part, according to Ellen Campesinos! bassist for the rock band Los Campesinos!

And while we’re on the subject of women and music, I enjoyed this article “On Being A Feminist Metalhead”.  Black Metal ain’t just a boys club gentlemen.

Even 8 year old girls can rock hardcore!

Do you love Nirvana?  Then you’ll want to check out “A World of Nirvana”, a mash-up of Google Maps and YouTube, that allows you to view Nirvana shows by year from the band’s early beginnings in 1987 through some of their last shows in 1994.

And speaking of live shows, you gotta love this Flikr pool.

If you never read our interview with Clay Hayes of GigPosters.com or even if you did, we recommend this Visual News interview with the man himself.

Bob Dylan as a zombie?  Madonna as a zombie?  Keith Richards as a zombie?  Wait a minute, Keith IS a zombie!  Check it!

Alternative- pop song lyrics got you wondering?  No need to worry, McSweeney’s provides “Common Sense Solutions to Alt-Pop Song Problems”.

Project Thirty-Three is a blog devoted to “the seemingly infinite number of vintage album covers that convey their message with only simple shapes and typography…”

If this house is rockin’…you CAN come a knockin’!

I love to lie in bed and listen to music, but this is ridiculous…ly cool.

This real band used fake band member names to drum up some mystery that turned into internet hype that turned into an album, tour, etc.  Funny how that works…huh?

Moyssi.com is a website collection of the more than 300 concert programs created by James D. Moyssiadis aka Moyssi for John Scher Productions from 1977 – 1984.  The cover illustrations all depict something original about the artist performing.  It’s really great stuff, so check out the whole site.

frizbee also sent me this article from Webdesigner Depot that showcases some of the Common Design Styles Used In Album Artwork.

Turns out rock bands cop more than just riffs from other people! Who knew a font could cause so much trouble!

Hope I die before I get old!  Well, recent articles in Noisecreep and Holy Taco would seem to back that up.  Ouch.

Who needs a Vegas wedding when you can have Reverend Sister Go-Go perform your nuptials.

Inspiration Feed posted this great article on “10 Ideas Smartly Expressed by Awesome Typography”.

They also had this cool post on “40 Exciting Occupy Movement Poster Designs”.

Graphic designer Simon C. Page created these alternate album cover designs for a series he called “Music Inspired Album Covers”, all of which “were created, influenced and inspired by just listening to the music”.

About.com’s Chad Bowar released his Best Heavy Metal CDs of 2011 list, and it’s a doozy.  Plus he compiled a list of his Top German Metal Bands.

And in the WTF Dept., Disney Is Selling a Joy Division Mickey Mouse T-Shirt.

Looks like Figment News isn’t the only one interviewing fake bands!

Ever wonder how Grace Jones managed that arabesque on the cover of her Island Life album cover?  Here’s how.

These last two links come courtesy of theHoseman who not only clued me into this great article on The Hammond Organ, but also sent me this incredible poster!